Scientists from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center are working on a series of genetic analyses that suggest the underlying differences among racial groups are present not just in tumours, but in normal tissue as well. Dr Baumbach’s research group is observing a multi-ethnic cohort of patients with triple-negative breast cancer. Results showed that the number of genes related to the DNA repair pathway was expressed differently across ethnicities. In a set of 10 DNA repair/cell cycle genes, the direction of change was the same for all three ethnic groups, but the level of change differed.